Six and Six



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					Written by B. T. HUGHES	Composed by P. W. HALTON

Said to have been first produced at Hull on 9 August 1880, but this conflicts with other information, see below.

No Vocal Score in British Library, nor does the catalogue list any work by the librettist. According to Nicoll he also wrote Quits, with music by John Crook.

Copy of libretto in Lord Chamberlain's collection, entitled Six and Six When Suited, Add.MS. 53237, play no. F. This gives B.T. Hughes's address as 137 Bridge Street, Birkenhead. Some sources cite him erroneously as T.B. Hughes.

On tour March to December 1880 as companion piece to both Sorcerer and Pinafore with cast:

SISYPHUS TWISTER, proprietor of a matrimonial registry	Fred Billington
DIGBY CHICKEN, a serious young man	Sydney Price¹
TATTENHAM CORNER, a fast young man	Horace Bolini
MURIEL DALGLIESH², "such a simple thing"	Mary Duggan
MATILDA MACWHIRTER, a blue stocking	Annie Bernard
JULIA FITZSIMONS, proprietess of a wine bar	A[nnie] Farqu[h]arson

[This cast is from a programme in Low's collection, when the company were in Liverpool 30th August to 4th September 1880].

John Truro probably took over from Billington.

On tour December 1880-1881 with cast: Mr. Hodges, J. Duncan Young, Edward Clowes, Miss Keeping, Lena Monmouth, Beatrice Grosvenor and Josephine Woodward.

Synopsis

Scene: an office. Twister runs a matrimonial agency; one day to him come singly, Julia in love with Digby, Digby in love with Matilda, Matilda in love with Tattenham and Tattenham in love with Maude [Muriel]. Each retreats to a closet when the next visitor arrives, and so hears everything that follows. Finally Maude arrives. Twister is so struck with her that he offers to marry her himself (? sounds familiar), and the others are so disillusioned with each other that they have no wish to get married.

A piece called Matrimony; or, Six and Six When Suited, first produced in Huddersfield 14th May 1883, an operetta by unknown author and composer, no copy in Lord Chamberlain's collection fide Allardyce Nicoll, is almost certainly the same work. It was performed on tour 1883, with cast: Geraldine St. Maur, Annie Bernard, Leonard Vincent, H. Browning and S. Price.

[1] Selwyn Tillett (Ruddigore Centenary Booklet p. 4) claims that Price first appeared by name at the Opera Comique in 1880 when Six and Six was added to The Pirates of Penzance, but this seems to be an error, as there is apparently no evidence that the piece was ever played at the Opera Comique. Price was probably a touring chorister until summoned to the Savoy in c.1885. He was on tour for most of 1880 with the 2nd London company. Correction made in Sir Arthur Sullivan Society Magazine no. 26, p. 14.

[2] Maude in the Lord Chamberlain edition.

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